The present invention relates to wild bird feeders and more particularly to a squirrel repellent such device.
The feeding of wild birds is a popular pastime/hobby for many urban and suburban residents. Many bird-feeding devices have been developed to allow the convenient feeding of wild birds in easily observable exterior locations. In virtually all bird feeding environments, squirrels are a constant annoyance and pest as they invade bird feeders and compete with the birds for the available feed. Many times they drive the birds away and, in some cases, destroy or severely damage the bird-feeding device. Since squirrels are excellent jumpers, most manufacturers recommend locating the bird feeder at least ten feet from structures or other objects such as trees that squirrels can climb. This is not always possible, if the bird feeder is to remain located where the birds are readily observable from the inside of the home or office.
Accordingly, in order to meet and defeat the squirrel threat, many ingenious devices have been developed. Many of these remain readily defeatable by the squirrels because of their excellent jumping capabilities. Some such devices are described in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,690,056, 5,535,835, 5,676,089, and 5,664,522. While the devices described in the foregoing patents all propose solutions to the problem, they are not fully satisfactory under all circumstances and are often defeated by squirrels.
Accordingly, there remains a need for a wild bird feeding device that is capable of repelling squirrels.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a bird feeder that successfully repels squirrels attempting to feed therefrom.
According to the present invention, there is provided a bird feeder equipped with an electrically powered spinning mechanism that is triggered by the weight of a squirrel on the feeder. Upon detection of a squirrel on the feeder, the spinning mechanism rotates the feeder at a rate adequate to centrifugally remove the invading squirrel while resulting in a minimum loss of feed contained in the feeder.